Blockades prompt action on drivers' hours
Page 5
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Nine hour day in new EEC plans
FURTHER PROOF that last month's blockades have had an effect upon EEC legislators is news that discussion of a major overhaul of the hours and records legislation was scheduled for this week's transport council meeting in Brussels.
French Transport Minister Charles Fiterman's pressure has led to the EEC Commission's formal adoption of a set of propo-, sals for revised and relaxed hours Regulations getting on to the agenda, provided full translations were completed in time.
The plan is to increase the daily driving limit from eight hours to nine, with the twiceweekly nine hour concession be ing increased to 10. The weekly 48-hour driving limit would be reduced to 45 hours, but the 92hour two-weekly limit would disappear.
The four-hour continuous driving limit would be replaced by a four-and-a-half hour continuous working limit, and daily rest period would rise from 11 to 12 hours. Weekly rest would rise from 40 to 48 hours.
One of the more confusing and limiting features of the EEC Regulations, the rolling week, would disappear and be replaced by a 45-hour fixed week which, ironically, is more flexible.
The 450km limit for vehicles not equipped with tachographs would disappear.
All vehicles over 3.5 tonnes would be bound by the same set of Regulations, thus removing the present exclusion of vehicles over 20 tonnes gvw from the nine-hour twice-weekly concession.
One of the less welcome proposals, and one which will be resisted by the British industry, is a requirement for tachograph charts to be numbered serially and recorded in a register.
Among a long list of potential derogations (exemptions) from the Regulations is an exemption from hours and tachograph requirements where a vehicle operates within 50km of its base, where driving is subsidiary to the main business.
Little was expected to become of the discussions this week, except to get them at last on to Transport Ministers' tables for discussion, and the Department of Transport was anxious to assure British operators that it would want to discuss the proposals with operators here before arriving at a decision.
Road Haulage Association executive officer Bob Duffy told CM that a 10-hour working day would have been more acceptable to British hauliers, as it would have increased flexibility. But the twice-weekly 10-hour concession would be a help.
He described the four-and-ahalf hour working limit as a "nonsense" which should be replaced by a five-hour continuous driving limit.
The 12-hour daily rest period would be satisfactory, provided it was reduced to eight hours for drivers working away from home. Their weekly rest period could be increased in compensation.
The 48-hour weekly rest period was "a bit much" and ought to be 44 hours, he suggested.
The Transport and General Workers' Union takes a contrary view, and its commercial group secretary, Jack Ashwell, told CM it objected to the increase in the driving day to nine hours.
Mr Fiterman told the European Parliament last week that during his current six months term of office as president of the EEC transport council he would be calling for fresh attention to much debated question on lorry weights and dimensions, transport permits, quotas and road safety.
He said the present hours rules were "too rigid" and "no longer appropriate to modern transport conditions and management".
The EEC Commission had been requested to produce reform proposals "as rapidly as possible".
Impressed by Mr Fiterman's conciliatory comments, British Euro MP Robert Moreland (Conservative, East Staffordshire) said: "Of all the speeches I have heard from ministers over the last few years, his gives me the most encouragement."